It's The Sex, Stupid

Stories about the sex lives of politicians are just about the hottest copy in the business. So hot, that the hottest story at the New York Times is the rumour of a story about the sex life of David Paterson, New York’s governor.

We are all waiting for the great bombshell.

Although it may be that we don’t even need an actual story, that having had so many stories about politicians’ sex lives, we can all fill in the blanks.

There are already reports that the governor will resign, and already denials from the governor about the imminence of his resignation, and about the details—he hasn’t had extra-marital sex, he says, since the last time he admitted to having extra-marital sex. Even though the story does not exist, the Times is being censured for it. The story is “psychological warfare,” according to Rick Lazio, a potential Paterson opponent (i.e., he gets to call attention to the story by distancing himself from it). This drubbing is not dissimilar to what happened after the Times published its investigation of John McCain’s sex life.